From contracts to research papers, most important documents come in the form of long PDF files. No matter what you do, you’re guaranteed to come across them throughout your life, and they almost always contain verbose language. This is especially true for students, as teachers of all grades love to hand out PDF handouts. AI can now help you better understand the content and save time in the process.
ChatGPT can act as your assistant by analyzing the PDFs and being ready for whatever you need. It can answer questions, provide summaries, and even generate content from the text, including outlines, emails, and more. The best part is that the feature is completely free.
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In May 2024, almost a year after ChatGPT launched, OpenAI updated the free version of the chatbot with several GPT-4o features normally reserved for paying customers, including the ability to upload screenshots, photos, and documents. Getting started with the tool is easy and will save you a lot of time and effort in the long run.
How to use ChatGPT to analyze PDFs
Although you can access ChatGPT through OpenAI without logging in, you must log in to your account to use GPT-4o and its advanced features (including browsing, vision, data analysis, file uploads, and GPTs).
Also: How to use ChatGPT to write Excel formulas
If you’ve never created a ChatGPT account before, you can easily do so on the sign-up page, or you can log in with your existing Google or Microsoft account. I chose the latter option so I don’t have to remember another username and password.
Once you log in, you’ll be taken to the ChatGPT interface. Next to the text box where you normally type text to start chatting, you’ll see a little paperclip icon. When you click on it, you’ll have several options: Connect to Google Drive, Connect to Microsoft OneDrive, or Upload from a computer.
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Choose the best option for where to save your document. Since I usually upload a document that I just downloaded, I always choose to upload from my computer. Then you can click on the PDF you need help with. For this example, I’ll use a PDF of one of my ZDNET articles.
Once you’ve uploaded the PDF, you can annotate it with a text prompt that tells ChatGPT what to do. You can make these prompts as adventurous or simple as you like. I kept it simple and asked for a summary: “Can you summarize what this article is about?”
Also: How ChatGPT (and other AI chatbots) can help you write an essay
As you can see in the photo below, I immediately received a comprehensive four-sentence summary and since I wrote the article, I can confirm that it was accurate.
You can also ask the chatbot for help with more complex tasks. For example, you could ask the chatbot to, “Take the action points from this PDF, organize them into bullet points, and format them in an email to my boss.”
Also: ChatGPT vs. Microsoft Copilot vs. Gemini: Which is the best AI chatbot?
Overall, using ChatGPT to parse large PDFs can save you time and help you get through long-winded paragraphs. Of course, you should always check ChatGPT’s work for hallucinations as a precaution. If you want to try out more document summarization tools, stay tuned, as similar features will be available for Apple OS later this year.
FAQ
Can ChatGPT combine PDFs?
Yes, ChatGPT can summarize PDFs for anyone with an OpenAI account. After logging in, users need to click the paperclip icon next to the text box, select the PDF to analyze, and add a text prompt explaining what ChatGPT should do.
Can ChatGPT summarize content other than PDFs?
Yes, ChatGPT can summarize virtually any content, including PDFs, images, handwritten notes, websites, copied and pasted text, and more. The steps are similar. You need to log in or create an OpenAI account, import the content you want into ChatGPT, and annotate it with the text you need.
Are ChatGPT’s summary features free?
Yes, ChatGPT’s summarization features are free. The only limitation is that you need an OpenAI account, which you can create for free. Creating an account is easy as you can use an existing Google or Microsoft account, or simply create a new username and password.
